Keeping your pet, such as your dog, properly hydrated or fed while you and your pet are away from the convenience of your home is often inconvenient and problematic. Owners and their pets now travel together away from home to more destinations than ever before with the continuing growth in acceptance of your pet at more destinations. For example, such pet friendly destinations include a wide range of public locations such as coffee shops, outdoor dining restaurants, beaches, hiking trails, parks, shopping malls, sports fields and more. The destination list of acceptance for pets keeps growing wherein canines are also now welcomed in many hotels, universities and workplaces. As a result, your pet, which has the need for clean and safe water much like its owner, is now more often found displaced from the convenient access to their water bowl at home. Moreover, similar inconveniences apply to also feeding your pet.
With your pet being located away from home, pet owners take a risk that their pet will get sick drinking from various water sources. Your pet is at times left to drinking water from sources such as outdoor standing puddles or ponds that are not clean or biologically healthy, in that, they may carry undesirable bacteria and/or parasites. This can also occur from use of personal bowls that are not regularly cleaned. Some public locations such as shopping areas may provide community bowls of water for your pet, however this is a source where pets can transmit parasites and harmful bacteria to one another. In the attempt to avoid these less clean alternatives for your pet, owners will attempt to hydrate their pet in possibly a more healthy fashion by, for example, providing their pet with water from a traditional human water bottle or possibly diverting water from a public drinking fountain. Both of these methods are awkward and messy for both the owner and the pet. In particular, these attempted methods, often have your pet drinking from an unnatural position, one which does not have the pet standing and using its tongue to lap the water from a receptacle or bowl.
Attempts have been made to hydrate pets away from home, however, these attempts still introduce some form of inconvenience for the owner or unnatural presentation of the water for the pet to consume the fluid. For example, pouches for holding and carrying the water for your pet are used wherein the water contents are squirted from the pouch toward the pet for them to drink. This is often messy and an unnatural way for the pet to consume a fluid.
Bottles have been provided with an elongated trough positioned to be held over the cap of the bottle. The bottle holds the water from which the contents can fill the trough once the trough has been removed from being positioned over the cap. The trough is then held by the owner from which the pet consumes the fluid. This is inconvenient for the owner. Moreover, the owner repositions the trough over the cap with saliva residue from the pet positioned in the trough after the drinking process has been completed. This permits saliva to come into contact with the cap or spout area. The saliva will migrate onto the cap and spout area making it an unpleasant experience for the owner in grasping the saliva when resealing and reopening the bottle. Additionally, bacteria positioned onto the cap, by way of the cap coming into contact with the hand of the owner, is transmitted to the trough with the trough positioned over the cap. With reusing this packaging item for the pet, this product provides an unpleasant experience for the owner and presents a sanitary cross contamination problem to the pet.
Similarly, other bottles with troughs hinged to the bottle have been made where the trough could be rested on the ground with the bottle extending upwardly. The contents of the bottle can flow into the trough. This configuration can make it easy for either the dog or the owner to topple the bottle and spill the contents of the bottle and/or trough. Moreover, with this design, the trough is positioned to engage the side of the bottle when not in use. The trough again will carry saliva of the pet that has drank from the trough and with the trough re-engaged to the side of the bottle this saliva will be deposited on the side of the bottle. This will result in an unpleasant experience for the owner grasping the bottle with the saliva now adhering to the side of the bottle. Also, the trough will come into contact with bacteria deposited on the side of the bottle which originated from the hand of the owner that has gripped the bottle. This bacteria will be transmitted to the pet on the next serving of the pet with use of the trough. These packaging devices similarly provide an unpleasant experience for the owner and present a sanitary cross contamination problem for the pet.
Stand-alone bowls have been configured so that the bowl conveniently fits, for example, into a cup holder in a car; collapsible bowls have been used such that it can be conveniently carried in a flattened condition by the owner; and even traditional bowls have been inconveniently carried by a caring owner. However, the water, in all of these instances, must still be sought out by the owner to fill these bowls. Additionally, these items, which are typically reused, must be washed regularly to prevent the transmission of unwanted bacteria or parasites to your pet. Additionally, those containers that would conveniently fit in a cup holder in an auto, unnecessarily place any nearby electronic equipment (mobile phones, power cables, GPS equipment, etc.) in danger of being unnecessarily doused with water.
The inconveniences for providing hydrating fluid material to your pet, also applies to feeding your pet away from the conveniences of home. Pet food material is not often readily available at the destination to which you and your pet have arrived. It is not convenient to carry portions of food material for feeding your pet and separately carry a bowl from which the pet can naturally stand in front of and eat. Attempts to feed your pet with the assemblies mentioned above for providing hydrating fluid material would have similar short comings should they be used for providing food material to your pet. The pet owner is often relegated to improvising a meal for their pet which may not be as nutritious or as healthy, particularly, should your pet have a need for a special food.
Thus, there is a need for a convenient packaging in which healthy hydrating fluid or food can be carried by the owner and from which a compact convenient drinking or eating receptacle can also be provided, such that, the pet can be in a natural position to consume the healthy fluid and/or food materials without messy results for the owner and/or pet. The use of the packaging needs to make it a pleasant experience for the owner and a sanitary one for the pet in inhibiting cross contamination from the cap or spout area of the container.